Clubs split over fate of Dooney

There was continued uncertainty over the fate of eircom League commissioner Roy Dooney yesterday after a meeting of club representatives deferred a decision on whether to support a deal being negotiated between the official and his employers.

The matter was referred back from Monday night's board of control meeting to the broader management committee, which will consider the matter next Tuesday. But there appears to have been significant opposition to the idea of the deal, with a number of clubs objecting to the idea of paying a significant sum to a man they feel blundered his way through last year's difficult registration saga, and some others still believed to favour leaving him in place.

Indeed, it is believed that even some of those who would prefer to see Dooney go are nevertheless objecting to the deal over the prospect of the departing official being required to sign a confidentiality clause relating to last season's events. Several senior club officials believe that the league's officers may have known more about the decision taken than has so far been revealed.

In the event that Dooney leaves, but is obliged to maintain his silence on the matter, they believe it will prove impossible to get to the bottom of the whole story.

While the officials of the league and FAI await approval for any package that might be agreed with their commissioner, Dooney met the association's general secretary, Brendan Menton, yesterday afternoon to discuss the situation, and it is understood that the legal representatives of the two sides are continuing talks to reach a settlement.

There was, meanwhile, some concern voiced at Monday's meeting over reports that a handwritten document had surfaced within the league's offices that supported Dooney's version of events in relation to the day that the original Paul Marney case came to light.

Over the weekend, after the issue was reported in Saturday's Irish Times, one league official questioned the authenticity of the claim and insisted that if such a document did exist that it should be passed on immediately to the legal affairs committee, which has already carried out an investigation into how the whole registration affair had been handled. In its report, the committee strongly rejected Dooney's account of his actions on the day in question.

While both the content and origin of the A4 sheet remain hotly disputed, league chairman Michael Hyland confirmed yesterday that it does exist.

"I'm aware that there is a piece of paper, I've seen it, but I didn't read what was on it and I wasn't particularly interested in doing so.

"It could well be significant," he continued, before echoing the earlier call for it to be handed over by remarking that "there was a way to go with it. I imagine that (handing it over to the legal affairs committee) is what should have been done with it in the first place."

Meanwhile, St Patrick's Athletic will again be without their Ugandan international Charles Mbabazi for this evening's FAI Cup second round replay at Terryland Park.

The striker is still at home with his family after suffering a bereavement.

Robbie Griffin has yet to shake off a hamstring problem and will sit out the game, while Ger McCarthy and Darragh Maguire are reckoned to be in with a good chance of playing after shaking off knocks picked up in Friday night's original meeting between the two sides.

United add Gary Grant and Barry Moran to the squad which travelled to Dublin with neither having been signed in time to be eligible for last week's game, but neither is likely to start this evening.

"We'll be more or less the same as we were in the first game," says United manager Tony Mannion.